I am now a Canadian Citizen
Some words on freedom, mostly to my other passport country, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration
Yesterday morning, I participated in a citizenship ceremony by which I became a naturalized citizen of Canada. It’s a privilege, and I do want to thank Judge Rochelle Ivril who administered my oath, and all the people and policies represented in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). I also want to recognize my privilege: I realize I had the (remote) employment, finances, education, opportunity, and sponsorship that has allowed me to immigrate. I am a dual citizen with the U.S., my birth country. I share similar status now as my three adult children: we are all dual citizens.
And before you ask, this has nothing to do with Donald Trump, due to be inaugurated for his second term in just four days. I became a citizen because of love: love for my wife and children, love for my in-laws, love for Canada, and love. . . wait for it. . . for freedom.
On that last point, here are three amusing allusions followed by three abusive illusions.
Three amusing allusions:
1. We were in a movie theater in St. Catharines, Ontario in 2019 watching the film “Harriet” about Harriet Tubman. Suddenly on the screen, the scene changed. Tubman wasn’t running. She was settled in a community for a season. Words flashed on the screen: she was in “St. Catharines, Canada.” Here in the Niagara Peninsula, we are at the terminus of the Underground Railroad. Please consider our home a refuge.
2. If you draw a straight line from our house in Port Colborne due south across Lake Erie to New York on the other side, the city there is. . . wait for it. . . Dunkirk. The only watercraft we own are two plastic kayaks, but otherwise please consider our resources yours for help in time of rescue.
3. I don’t believe, despite his bullying, that Trump will order the military evasion of Greenland or of his “51ststate.” The same assurance, I fear, cannot be offered the first 100 miles into sovereign Mexican territory or to all of Panama, since America’s muscle memory of incursions into Latin America is regularly refreshed. Neither, do I suppose, will the military draft be reinstituted in the States. Nonetheless, if there is some “dodging” to do in the future, please consider our home a sanctuary.
I remember back in December 2016 when one of our friends from church wanted to gloat on Facebook about the first Trump victory. He said, “Hey, all you people who said you would leave if Trump won, why aren’t you moving?” We moved up here in August 2018. But it wasn’t because of Trump. Looking back, however, we can identify some things we escaped in which the idolatry which surrounds Trump is implicated. I’ll call them illusions since they are common false conceptions about Canada or the United States. I’ll call them abusivebecause they are impinging on our freedoms. The oligarchs and plutocrats in the US want you to remain ignorant of them.
Three abusive illusions:
1. Last year when I was in Azerbaijan for COP29, my wife Robynn tumbled headfirst down our stairs. It was so bad that she had to reach for her phone through the broken glass on the floor and call for an ambulance. Last week we got the bill for her entire treatment: for the ambulance ride, for the ER visit, for multiple CT scans, for multiple X-Rays, for two visits with an orthopedic surgeon, for a cast, for a splint. The total we had to pay: $45 for the ambulance alone. (In US dollars, that would be $31.34). “But you have to pay such high taxes in Canada?” Perhaps, but tally up how much you pay in taxes in the States, and then add in your insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-payments. I bet you’re paying more than we are. “But you have such long wait times?” Not for emergencies, and our wait times are more comparable than you may want to believe about the U.S.’s. “But the quality of your care is less.” Baloney. When we lived in the States, we had wonderful insurance coverage through our employer, a mission agency called Christar. Like any mission agency, Christar expected us to fundraise the money to pay for our share of the premiums. We were under-supported at the time, and so Christar began cutting our salary every month to make up for our deficit. Meanwhile, even with such excellent insurance, one single hospitalization sent us into medical debt for the first time in our lives. Only after we moved to Canada, still with Christar but not needing their insurance, did we find ourselves out of support deficit, and out of medical debt. A few years ago, one Sunday morning, Robynn woke up complaining of chest pains. We got dressed and I drove her over to the hospital in Welland. They immediately checked her out—she was in no danger—and then kept her, yes, waiting in the ER for hours for her place in the triage. That afternoon I was visited by a friend from our new church. He just stood on the front porch and didn’t even come in. “Lowell,” he said, “I know that you have moved from the States, but up here we do things differently. You call the ambulance right away. You do not drive Robynn yourself. It will only cost you [$45, it turns out.] You call.” I could talk about my finances here in Canada, or I could talk about freedom.
2. We were back from India when our youngest daughter entered kindergarten at Bluemont Elementary School in Manhattan, KS. She has never not known active shooter drills. After the Parkland shooting (Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School) in February 2018, she participated in a Reasonable Gun Laws rally at City Hall. She even gave a short speech. We were proud of her, and the small crowd was more affirming than the reception she received after she had made the hike back up to the high school. That next fall semester, also in 2018, she was at Lakeshore Catholic High School here in Canada for her Junior year. We had moved. During an assembly in the gym one day, a balloon popped, and our daughter dropped down into the risers. Her friends looked down at her and asked her, “What are you doing?” She was as surprised as they were. I could talk about our safety here in Canada, or I could talk about freedom.
3. However much I wished that yesterday’s citizenship ceremony was held in person, nonetheless the ceremony that used Zoom to welcomed 120 people from 40 different countries into Canada was beautiful and meaningful. I teared up when they played a video produced by indigenous leaders, entitled “Welcome, There is Room,” billed as offering “a welcome from First Nations, Métis and Inuit, the indigenous Peoples of these lands.” The words of the citizenship oath itself included “that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including the Constitution which recognizes and affirms the Aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.” Toward the end of the video itself, an Anishinaabe elder looks into the camera and says, “Aanii. Hello! My Indigenous name is Kinnozishingwak, which means Tall Pine, and my English name is Bob. Learning is a critical part about reconciliation: learning about the land you live on, learning about the histories of indigenous Peoples on that land and across Canada. … We know that people come here from all over the world and we’re anxious to hear your stories, too. That’s part of reconciliation, is learning about each other as we become neighbours. We welcome you.” It’s nice to be welcomed as an immigrant. It’s also nice to be disabused of the notion that there might be such a thing as a “true Canadian,” like how Trump and the MAGA movement have used the term “true American,” ascribing it almost solely for white people (or for white immigrants like his wife). It’s an illusion for any white American to think that they are less a “settler” than what I am in Canada, or that they bear any less responsibility for truth and reconciliation among those of their fellow citizens who are descendants of abused and enslaved peoples.
Canada, of course, has our own failures and blindnesses—including about weaknesses in our healthcare system, violence against our youth, and slow progress on the 94 calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015. Nonetheless, there is a sense up here that we are trying. I no longer have that same sense from the States. And there is a sense up here that we are a freedom-loving people. I no longer have that same sense about the States. I may have given you the impression that I have “escaped” to Canada in order to escape medical debt, the threat of violence to my kids, or because half of the US electorate seems hostile towards my speech and my worship, but I came here to continue pursuing freedom, not only for me but also for ALL my fellow citizens. (Don’t forget: I’m a dual citizen!)
On January 6 (but in 1941), our national leader addressed a session of his legislature. Here is a portion of his speech:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech, and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
If you haven’t guessed, this is the famous “Four Freedoms Speech” delivered—not by William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister at the time in Canada—but rather by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his State of the Union. The four freedoms: of speech and expression, of worship, from want, from fear. The first two freedoms—of speech and of worship—of course are enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. Nonetheless, I don’t see much credence given to them by the current Republican regime, the MAGA movement, Christian nationalists, or corporate media billionaires. The freedom from fear is not in the Bill of Rights, but the Second Amendment is, apparently as a localized extension of the arms race: I can kill you more bigly than you can kill me. And as for the freedom of want: “Socialism!” they cry, while every single year the US government gives $646 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at the same time MAGA complains about FEMA bailing out their fellow citizens devastated by climate change impacts. “Socialism!” they cry, while preparing the legislation for another round of tax cuts for American billionaires.
From our Canadian home on the north shore of Lake Erie, I can look across the narrow and shallow expanse of water and see the green hills of America, up above Dunkirk, NY. Wind turbines are visible on the ridge. They aren’t causing cancer. They aren’t killing birds or whales. They do challenge ‘drill, baby, drill.” They are, in my mind, like modern Lady Liberties swinging their torch in big wide circles, trying to recapture our attention. Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. Freedom is worth not giving up on, no matter in whose borders you live. And there are a lot more freedoms than what the autocrats and billionaires are peddling you. Brothers and sisters, don’t quit trying.
Reader, you are very dear to God,
Lowell
PS- Part Two of the series “Lowell is Now a Canadian Citizen” will reveal that I actually possess a third passport, one that I picked up at the COP21 climate summit in Paris. Stay tuned.